“Steve Wozniak, who co-founded Apple with Jobs in 1976, says he’s a big fan of Android phones. Woz says he still thinks Apple’s iPhone is the best overall smartphone, but he says there are ways in which Android has leapt ahead of Apple,” Dan Lyons reports for The Daily Beast. “‘My primary phone is the iPhone,’ Woz says. ‘I love the beauty of it. But I wish it did all the things my Android does, I really do.'”

Android phones aren’t as simple to use as the iPhone, but they’re not that much more complicated, and ‘if you’re willing to do the work to understand it a little bit, well I hate to say it, but there’s more available in some ways,’ Woz says… ‘There’s not as big a difference [between iOS and Android] as there was between Mac and Windows,'” Lyons reports.

MacDailyNews Take: And, why do you think that is, Woz? Because it’s a stolen product, that’s why. A bastardized iPhone. Shouldn’t an “Apple employee,” even one who hasn’t done a thing for decades, still value his company’s intellectual property at least a little bit? Oh, that’s right, R&D is free, nobody’s work is their own, and everything should just be shared anyway (dripping sarcasm).

Lyons reports, “Woz says he recently spoke to a developer at Foursquare who said Apple’s bureaucratic approval process slows app developers down, whereas on Android, developers can get programs out faster and work on making tweaks and revisions in less time.”

MacDailyNews Take: That’s great, Woz. Here’s what else you get when you settle for a knockoff:

“Then there’s Siri, Apple’s new voice-recognition software. Woz says he’s been using Siri for a long time and used to love it when it was an independent application created for the iPhone,” Lyons reports. “But ever since Apple bought Siri and built the software into the iPhone 4S, it doesn’t work as well as it used to. ‘I used to ask Siri, ‘What are the five biggest lakes in California?’ and it would come back with the answer. Now it just misses.'”

MacDailyNews Take: See, Woz, forgets things easily. He has to ask Siri to name the five biggest California lakes daily. Tomorrow, when he asks yet again, Siri should just tell him to fsck off.

Lyons reports, “Worse, a lot of the time Siri says it can’t make a connection to the back-end servers that power the system. ‘With the iPhone 4 I could press a button and call my wife. Now on the 4S I can only do that when Siri can connect over the Internet. But many times it can’t connect. I’ve never had Android come back and say, ‘I can’t connect over the Internet.'”

MacDailyNews Take: Woz doesn’t know how to work his iPhone 4S.

Settings > Siri > OFF.

Now try to call your wife, Woz. See? Voice Control from your iPhone 4 (which debuted with iPhone 3GS back on June 19, 2009) is still right there. As always, Voice Control does not require Internet access. Granted, Apple needs to make Siri automatically only use the network when necessary, but, gee whiz, er… Woz, that’s why they call it a “beta.”

MacDailyNews Take: Because Woz doesn’t know how to work his iPhone 4S, his opinion on how other smartphones work compared to it is meaningless.

And, Dan Lyons —— who hasn’t yet figured out a reliable way to slam Apple now that Steve’s gone (Lyons will be registering deadsteve.net later today to begin “ghost” blogging – right after he reads this) —— for taking advantage of poor Woz, a kind and trusting soul, Dan Lyons remains a royal asshole.

Obviously you do not watch television, gcaptain! Seen “The Big Bang Theory” lately? There’s Woz. Know who Kathy Griffin is? There’s Woz. (Or at least USED to be.) This guy has begged Apple to let him back in, and they have–one and all–told him to fsck off. A genius of electrical engineering? Unquestionably. An unabashed supporter of the company he helped create? Absolutely NOT. Attention Whore is much too nice an eponym for him.

It’s not about Woz’s need for attention, it’s about plain stupidity or perhaps an axe to grind (more likely). Given his significant role in the early evolution of Apple, he does himself and Apple a major disservice blathering/fawning to the Press about the great features of stolen intellectual property. File this under “pathetic fool finds new low”.

IMHO, the Woz is way past his use by date. What other in-duh-vidual, who has not been involved with a company for eons – except as an attention whore – is given so much press. I would hazard to guess that there is none of his original technology floating around any of the current Apple products. Yes, he deserves recognition for being literally forced to agree to create a profit oriented company with Steve Jobs but after that I think (again IMHO) his use by dated has been exceeded. Who gives a fat rats what he thinks anymore? The Woz Worshipers?

And let’s not forget that Woz titled his biography “iWoz” — when he had absolutely nothing to do with any of Apple’s i-devices. It’s one thing to want to be in the limelight, or to talk about his past accomplishments with Apple. It’s quite another to pretend that he contributed to Apple’s more recent successes.

Yes, when you don’t know how to work to work your iPhone 4S and then criticize it because of your ignorance, your opinion on how it compares with other, clearly derivative devices is meaningless regardless of whatever rudimentary personal computer you designed or company you “co-founded” (more like dragged kicking and screaming to sign on the dotted line by the real founder) way back when.

What do you mean by “he doesn’t know how” to use it? Should he have to turn Siri off? Shouldn’t it “just work”?

The iPhone doesn’t really come with an instruction manual…because it doesn’t, in theory, need one. Woz isn’t lying about his experience.

There is nothing wrong with the man saying what’s on his mind..no matter how random. I’m a punch drinking fanboy too..but Jesus fellas, calm down!

The difference between Apple and other companies is that Apple will actually play with their competetor’s products and respect the good things. Unlike Ballmer who has banned anything apple in his house and office.

Right now, Siri beta overrides Voice Control. When you turn Siri beta off, Voice Control works the same as it always has — just like Woz’s beloved iOS knockoff, the world’ most insecure mobile OS: Android.

I detest Dan Lyons myself, but MDN, as usual, was careful only to highlight the tidbits of the article to make Woz look bad, dismissing some legitimate points that were made. Shame, but typical of MDN.

Damn right he got that right. Go Woz! Tell it like it is. We want the unvarnished truth, not some sugarcoated babble that Apple’s PR department puts out.

Apart from a fixation on outdated 3.5″ screen sizes, the thing that bugs me about iOS is the complete lack of customability when it comes to setting calendar weeks. I mean come on how hard would it be to let me pick Monday as the start of the week, but noooo….

We’re not all complete morons.

Also if you send mail by triggering new mail from your address book, the mail app won’t append ‘smart names’, just the person’s bare email address. But if you select the person from the recipients list in the mail app, his name appears. How retarded is that?

I tried to ask the same question which Woz asked Siri, surprisingly it did answered my question correctly. I just can’t believe Woz said something like he never used an iPhone and he has less understanding on Siri. Moreover, it’s just the beginning of Siri era. Just like the App Store first established. Rome isn’t build in a day. Slowly will be better. Besides, it’s just a beta version. With the beta version is doing so well now, I can see a bright future for Siri. Android does have function similar to Siri, but just isn’t lively enough and need to stick with keywords.